1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to communicating diagnostic information about machines and systems to an operator, technician or other user.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,494, to Aliens, et al., incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a method of automatic notification of diagnostic information concerning status and condition of a copy machine to selected remote devices. During operation of the copy machine, a controller continually scans and monitors appropriate memory locations for selected conditions, such as, for example, various jam and malfunction conditions or recorded cumulative numbers of such conditions. When a particular condition or threshold is reached as a result of machine control monitoring of the machine sensors and switches, or a coincidence of present machine conditions with stored reference or reporting conditions occurs, the copy machine will trigger an automatic transmission or notification to selected remote stations. Upon detecting any given condition, such as an out of paper condition, a predetermined fault condition, or an end of job, the machine automatically initiates a call to a pager using a modem, then sends one or more coded message to the pagers, including codes which represents the condition diagnosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,875 to Weinberger discloses a system for automatically and remotely monitoring the operational status of one or more copy machines to permit identifying copiers with operational problems to create service requests for those copy machines. Weinberger uses a central processing unit which is remotely located from the copiers in a separate computer.
In various exemplary embodiment of the systems and methods according to this invention, in which a single machine is used, a diagnostic machine condition signal is generated for a plurality of different conditions. Each different condition or category of conditions is transmitted to a user on a different frequency. The signals may be modulated to carry voice messages or codes for radio receivers and voice and/or written messages for pagers.
A machine user or technician can be provided with a transceiver in the form of a headset, with earphones, and possibly a microphone. In this manner, a user or technician can listen to a voice message. If the user is provided with a microphone, the user can send a voice message, or other control signal, back to the machine to cause a change in the condition detected or otherwise affect the machine such as, for example, to turn off the machine or a portion of the machine or have the machine run self-diagnostic tests. Alternatively, the user or technician can simply go to the machine and manually address the condition the machine apprised the user or technician of. In other exemplary embodiments, a wireless telephone may be used if the transmitter is fitted with an automatic dialing and message unit which plays a message to the user or technician after the user or technician answers the telephone, whether the telephone is wired or wireless. If a pager is used, then a message can be sent to the pager for viewing by the user or technician.
When plural machines are involved, each machine may be provided with a transceiver. Each machine""s transceiver may operate at a different frequency or group or frequencies from the other machines to provide a method of identifying which machine""s signal is being received by a user or technician. Additionally, each condition diagnosed and transmitted to a user or technician may additionally operate at a different frequency. The different condition frequencies will differ for each machine but will be within the unique range of frequencies transmitted by a particular machine.
In various other exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention, a transmission frequency is selected to (1) select the status or identity of the recipient, such as, for example, an operator, a technician, or some other user, based on the type of attention needed by the machine, (2) the priority of, attention needed by the machine, (3) the location of an available attention provider, and/or (4) to reduce or avoid interference among transmission frequencies.
In various other exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention, the machines are allowed to communicate with each other so that, for example, a machine closest to a machine user or technician may be used to transmit and/or display operational information from another machine. Alternatively, in various other exemplary embodiments, one or more machines are selected to receive diagnostic information signals from other machines and configured to more effectively or efficiently transmit that information to a user or technician. The one or more selected machines can also be configured to send signals to the other machines from which diagnostic information is received, for example, to turn the other machines off, place the other machines in a standby status, or to have the other machines perform self-maintenance procedures.
This invention is not limited to a wired connection between the machines and a user terminal and is not limited to using a wireless pager. For example, various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods of this invention use cellular phones, modems, loud speakers, and/or alarms, as well as pagers and modems.
In various other exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention, a machine user or technician is provided with a frequency scanner S to monitor all of the frequency transmission channels of the machines, so that the user or technician will almost immediately be aware of a diagnostic information signal being sent from one or more of the machines as well as the nature of the condition being diagnosed. However, where a single signal transceiving machine is used to communicate with the other machines and is the only machine which sends a signal to a machine user or technician, a scanner need not be used unless the single signal transceiving machine users more than one transmitting frequency.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention.